The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1887-09-03
THE ADMINISTRATIONS PUBLIC
LAND POLICY.


president in letter sent by him more
than three months ago to the secretary
of the interior touching the case of
Guilford Miller and the Northern Pa
cifc Railway company. In that let
ter the president criticized the action
of the interior department in the re-
cent past in reference to the public
lands, on the ground that it had re-
suited in the withdrawal of large
tracts-of public land from the opera
ton of the land laws of the United
States, and in placing them beyond
the reach of settlers. He then out
lined a policy rather more critical re-
garding the claims of corporations for
such Withdrawals than had been the
case for sometime past, suggesting,
among other things, that where cor
porations are entitled to select lands
from indemnity reservations they
should be required to select, when
possible, from tracts in which settlers
have no legal or equitable interests
and upon which they have made no
improvements. In short, he announced
the policy Of constituting grants of
land of this nature in favor OF the pub
lie land laws and of the settler rather
than in favor of the grantees, the rail-
road companies.
This policy is followed out in the
decision of secretary Lamar in the
case of the Atlantic & Pacific Railway
company. The case involved the right
OF the company to be Unidentified for
deficiencies where it did not get the
full amount of the sections granted
within the primary limits and failed
to make up its losses in the secondary
limits, and it arose under the secreta-
ry's rule of May %, 1887, ordering the
road to show cause why the withdraw
al OF the lands within its indemnity
limits should not be revoked and the
lands thrown open to settlement.
The third section of the act, incor-
porating the company and granting it
certain lands, grants to the company
ten odd-numbered sections of land on
each side of the line of its road pass
ing through the states, and twenty sec
tions where the road passes through
the territories. It further provides
that indemnity for the lands lost in
the granted limits, by reason of the
causes stated in said act, may be Sc
lected from the odd-numbered sec
tions within the further limits of ten
miles, and that the odd-numbered sec
tions thus granted shall not. be liable
to sale or entry or pre-emption before
or after being surveyed, except by the
company as provided in the act. At
the same time the provisions of the
homestead and pre-emption laws were
extended to all other lands, on the
line of the road when surveyed, ex-
cepting those granted to the company.
This grant, the secretary holds, was a
grant Of the stated quantity of land if
it could be found free within the
granted limits. IL not, then It'll
gave the privilege of looking
for the deficiency in restricted limits,
but if the company did not get the
full amount of the sections within
the primary limits, and failed to
make up its losses within the primary
limits, there was no violation OF con-
tract but only the Happening of a
contingency, plainly contemplated by
the granting act, subject to which
the company made its contract with
the government. The secretary holds
that it was the intention of congress
that all other lands except odd-nufn-
bered sections granted to the COM
pany should be open to pre-emption
and settlement under the homestead
laws. He is of opinion that the
withdrawal for indemnity purposes,
If permissible under the law, was
solely by virtue of executive author
ity, and may be revoked by the same
authority. He thinks that the time
has arrived when public policy and
justice demand that the withdrawal
be revoked in the interest OF per-
sons seeking homes on the public
domain, and he has therefore ordered
that the lands under Withdrawals for
indemnity purposes under the grant
to the company be restored to the
public domain and opened to set
tlement of the general land laws, ex-
cept such lands as may be covered by
approved selections. In another case,
that OF the Northern Pacific railroad
company, the secretary held that in
demnity for Deficiencies could not
be claimed anywhere within the limit
of the ten mile indemnity belt, but
that the deficiencies must be satisfied
within the state or territory wherei |